Hello, I am Joe from Cleveland Oh I am 32. I started my journey with a starting weight of 527 pounds. I have been on this journey for around a year. just waiting on my insurance to approve me for surgery. I chose weight loss surgery because i have tried many ways of losing weight and they just didn't stick long term.I found this site from people in the YouTube videos i have been watching so I figured I would give this a shot, and get more information and hear other peoples stories so i can better understand what I am going to be going through. I am kind of timid when it comes to talking to other people i usually just sit back and listen but I figured this would be a good place to start to try and come out of my shell. I am going to be going through a two part surgery plan with the gastric sleeve coming first then a year later getting the full gastric bypass.